cyclopticgaze

My travails restoring and modifying a 1971 BMW 2002. After baking in the Arizona sun for years, the car is slowly seeing some attention—provided I can make time for it. There's lots of work just to get it clean and running, and you can track my progress below.

This 02's painted black from a previous owner's cheap respray, but its original color was "malaga", a deep purple. I've set the background of this webpage to a color very close to it.

Apr 30, 2012

Jan 22, 2012

Oh how the time flies! After a year-and-a-half hiatus, a lengthy post in which I re-visit the front suspension. I rehabbed it with sport springs from Ireland Engineering, Bilstein Sport shocks, and various other goodies to bring it in line with the rear suspension.

Jun 6, 2009

May 10, 2009

Since Webby's drivable, I'd like to get things like the headlights and brake lights and signals working so I drive it safely and maybe even register in someday. So, time to tackle electrical gremlins. There's no sense in pulling and replacing all the wiring if the fuses are no good. I found some replacement fuses from the previous owner, so let's plug 'em in and see what happens.

Mar 15, 2009

Nov 28, 2008

Webby has leaked coolant every since I put coolant into it. Every leak I plugged seemed to create another someplace else, some worse than others. But now, I'm happy to say that the engine finally holds its water.

Aug 24, 2008

Well, after two-and-a-half years taking up space in two different garages, I decided enough was enough and fired up the car yesterday. I was able to get the engine running well enough that I went one further and slapped some rubber on it and dropped it off the jack stands.

Jun 06, 2006

Apr 23, 2006

I've finished cleaning the car, and here are some before and after pictures. Some areas don't look much better, and others show a marked improvement. I'm not going to bother cleaning it anymore because anything more than I've done will just be wasted effort when the repaint rolls around. Which makes me want to repaint it very soon, but that's going to cost much more than the car did, so it's going to have to wait.

My Restoration Guide and Haynes Manual finally arrived, so now I can get working on the mechanics with more confidence. Damn Amazon and their slow-ass free shipping (I ordered them a few days after I got the car).

Apr 1, 2006

Mar 31, 2006

Here's the car as I took possession of it two days ago. It doesn't run, is covered in dirt, and generally looks like hell. But it's so full of potential! Before I get it running (and stopping--the brakes are shot), cleaning the car is step #1. ("After" pictures will come once I'm done.) I've dubbed the car "Webby" because she's chock full of cobwebs. No doubt I'll just end up calling it "The Oh-Two", though.